CONTENTS

With yet more criticism aimed at the government's economic policies,
main opposition PASOK's political representative for economic issues
Louka Katseli stressed in an interview appearing in the newspaper
"Realnews" on Sunday that any stability or austerity programme
targeting those that were weakest was a "recipe for disaster".

"Those who fight PASOK's proposals are those who are nice and
comfortable with untransparency, lack of meritocracy, graft and closed
circles of power," she added.

Katseli named the prime minister, Costas Karamanlis, as the one chiefly
responsible for "the government's dead-end economic policies" and said
that Greece was already "essentially under supervision" since
international markets were "punishing" the country for its fiscal
aberrations and its collapsed competitiveness.

"Whether or not we are placed under European Union supervision in the
strict sense of the term, in other words whether we are placed under
the excessive deficit process, is a secondary issue," Katseli claimed.

Amid government appeals that they leave their tractors behind,
farmers in Iraklio, Crete on Sunday disbanded their five-day road
block at Linoperamata and arranged to meet at the island's port the
same evening, in order to take their protest to the capital.

They plan to board ferries headed for Piraeus in private cars and
agricultural vehicles, arriving on Monday morning for a protest
demonstration outside the agricultural development and foods
ministry, where they will also seek to have a meeting with the
minister and present their demands.

From Athens, Deputy Interior Minister Christos Markoyiannakis
appealed to Iraklio farmers to abandon their plans to bring their
tractors to Athens, warning that it would result in traffic gridlock
that would turn all of Attica against them.

"I have no right to say that someone does not have the right to make
demands, but they must bear in mind, those that create these things,
that they will cause a huge problem and bring the entire society of
Attica prefecture against them. For this reason I am appealing that
they come as individuals, as farmers, to protest and make demands
but not with tractors, not cars, not agricultural vehicles,"
Markoyiannakis stressed.

In northeastern Serres at the opposite end of Greece, meanwhile, the
tractor roadblock at the Promahonas border crossing with Bulgaria
was still going strong as it entered its 14th day, with farmers
there determined not to give in. The border remained closed apart
for one hour after 6:30 in the morning, when trucks carrying
perishable products were allowed through.

The Promahonas road block was one of the last bastions of the farmer
protests apart from the one at Nikaia, on the Thessaloniki-Athens
national highway near Larisa, where the farmers of Thessaly finally
decided to suspend their mobilisation and depart during a meeting on
Sunday afternoon.

They announced that the road block would end in an organised fashion
at 10:00 on Monday morning, and that they would meet against at
anniversary of the Kileler uprising on March 15.

With their departure, the farmers of Serres and Iraklio are the last
that continue to reject the aid package offered by the government,
on the grounds that the aid on offer is being unfairly distributed,
while elsewhere around the country protesting farmers have dispersed
and gone home.

In comments on the aid package of 500 million euros that the
government offered farmers to support their flagging incomes, which
have been slashed by the collapse of global food prices,
Agricultural Development and Foods Minister Sotiris Hatzigakis
stressed in an interview with the newspaper "Eleftheros Typos" on
Sunday that this was "fully compatible with existing Community
regulations".

"Those trying to undermine Greek positions in Brussels offer a bad
service," he added, noting that main opposition PASOK was "the big
loser of the agricultural mobilisations" and expressing satisfaction
that the majority of farmers had trusted him and left the road
blocks.

The minister also dismissed claims that the compensation offered
farmers was based on "geographic criteria", stressing that the only
criteria had been the true extent of damage suffered by farmers.